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The FDA has cleared for marketing a test that can help health care professionals determine the type of cancer cells present in a malignant tumor.

Patient demand for online or e-medicine prescribing appears to be growing and, along with it, concerns about the safety of prescribing over the Internet. A new study from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, and others has revealed some surprising findings about the safety of online prescribing.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison have pinpointed a gene behavior that could mark susceptibility to prostate cancer.

Men with early prostate cancer who undergo radical prostatectomy have a lower rate of death from prostate cancer than do men who undergo watchful waiting, according to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (2008: 100:1144-54).

Giving patients a continuous low dose of an immune system booster, a method known as metronomic dosing, as part of a therapeutic prostate cancer vaccine strategy is safe and produces similar immune responses to, and fewer side effects than, the more common dosing method, which is not well tolerated by many patients, according to a study by researchers at the National Cancer Institute.

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Research presented on advanced prostate cancer gives urologists information they can use now in daily practice and highlights an important step forward in the development of vaccine therapy.

Studies in urinary tract infections provided the foundation for rapid diagnosis of common urinary tract infection pathogens and opened windows into the mechanisms underlying chronic prostatitis and interstitial cystitis, two diseases characterized by their resistance to treatment.

Results of a phase three study evaluating second-line chemotherapy with gemcitabine/paclitaxel for metastatic bladder cancer failed to answer its primary question of whether maintenance treatment is superior to a temporary six-cycle regimen because maintenance treatment was usually not possible. However specific subgroups of patients who may be more likely to benefit from this combination regimen after failing first-line chemotherapy.

AUA take-home messages on management of localized prostate cancer

Pediatric urologists have confirmed that environmental pollutants can impair male sexual development and fertility and that reinnervation of the bladder after spinal cord injury may be within reach.

What role should urologists play in the evaluation and management of couples who have difficulty conceiving?

The growing use of robot-assisted laparoscopic techniques should cause urologists in the community to sit up and take more immediate notice.

Improvements in percutaneous stone removal, concern about radiation exposure from computed tomography imaging, and reassurance about the safety of shock wave lithotripsy highlighted presentations about stone removal.

Studies that looked at botulinum-A toxin for overactive bladder, studies of the transobturator male sling, and an investigation of stem cell injections for stress urinary incontinence all show promise, but all raise important clinical questions.

Combining topical and systemic therapies after surgery for balanitis xerotica obliterans can profoundly affect disease recovery.

Combination therapy using targeted agents is a promising yet elusive target in renal cell carcinoma, but questions about toxicity and benefits versus monotherapy have been raised in other studies.

Bacillus Calmette-Guerin remains the treatment of choice for bladder cancer in the United States, but more than half of patients with nonmuscle-invasive bladder cancers will eventually fail BCG. Several promising alternative treatments are under development, but radical cystectomy remains the optimal choice for patients who fail BCG.

Findings from a study of testicular cancer survivors add to existing evidence that cognitive impairment is a potential long-term risk of cancer chemotherapy.

The bisphosphonate zoledronic acid (Zometa) offers significant benefit in lowering the skeletal-related events rate in patients with bony metastatic bladder cancer, according to results of a prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled study.

Studies in the field of sexual dusfunction suggest urologists don't know as much as they think they do about Peyronie's disease and that incidence of erectile dysfunction has other implications.

This clinical trial shows that alkalinization of lidocaine improves absorption into the bladder and that the therapy decreases interstitial cystitis pain.

Christian O. Twiss, MD, has joined The University of Arizona department of surgery as assistant professor of clinical surgery and director of female urology, pelvic medicine, and pelvic reconstructive surgery.

Marc Goldstein, MD, has been named the Matthew P. Hardy Distinguished Professor of Reproductive Medicine and Urology at Weill Cornell Medical College.

A recent review of the literature has found that hormone deprivation therapy may have subtle adverse effects on cognition in patients receiving the treatment for prostate cancer, researchers will report in an upcoming issue of Cancer.

Blockage by the selective inhibitor abiraterone acetate of cytochrome P (CYP) 17 is safe and has significant antitumor activity in castration-resistant prostate cancer, according to a phase I study from the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, Sutton, Surrey, United Kingdom. The data confirm that castration-resistant prostate cancer commonly remains dependent on ligand-activated androgen receptor signaling, study authors say.

For the first time, a strategic plan for research into benign prostate disease, based on the latest scientific knowledge, has been published by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.